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Edwin Encarnacion, Blue Jays outslug Houston Astros

Edwin Encarnacion becomes the first Blue Jays player since Joe Carter to hit two home runs in the same inning as the Jays belt five bombs to overwhelm the Houston Astros 12-6.

Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion hits a solo home run in the seventh inning in the Jays' 12-6 victory over the Houston Astros at the Rogers Centre on July 26, 2013. He later would hit a grand slam in the same inning. (Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

“Homers win,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons used to say back in spring training, when the prospect of the upcoming season was all sunshine and optimism.

His team proved him right, on this night at least.

Edwin Encarnacion became the first Blue Jay since Joe Carter to hit two home runs in the same inning as the Jays slugged their way out of trouble against the Houston Astros on Friday, slamming five homers to overwhelm their inexperienced opposition and bail R.A. Dickey out of another rough start at home. “I picked a good night to be very mediocre, that’s for sure,” the knuckleballer said afterward.

The Jays tied a franchise record with 12 extra-base hits on the night, taking advantage of a weak Astros bullpen to score eight runs in a seventh-inning rally — capped by Encarnacion’s sixth career grand slam — and earn a come-from-behind 12-6 victory in front of an announced crowd of 24,088.

Encarnacion led off the marathon seventh with a line drive solo shot over the left field fence, and Adam Lind followed suit with his own bomb to the bleachers in right. Seven batters and just two outs later, Encarnacion was back at the dish with the bases juiced and he offered a carbon copy of his first homer, laser-beaming the four-run dinger into the Jays’ bullpen, earning a curtain call and signalling the rout.

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The last time a Blue Jay hit two home runs in a single inning was on Oct. 3, 1993, when Carter twice tagged Baltimore Orioles right-hander Ben McDonald at Camden Yards.

“To get to see something you only get to see once every 20 years is like seeing a comet,” Dickey marvelled of his teammate’s accomplishment. “He’s certainly doing what he’s paid to do here, so hats off to him.”

Dickey, on the other hand, continues to struggle at the Rogers Centre, where his ERA is more than two runs higher than it is on the road and where he has given up a full three-quarters of his 24 home runs. He left Friday’s game after six innings and his club trailing 5-4.

Steve Sparks, the former knuckleballer who pitched nine years in the majors and now works as a colour commentator on Houston’s radio broadcasts, threw batting practice for the Astros on Friday afternoon to help them get acclimatized to Dickey’s discombobulating pitch. The extra practice appeared to have paid off for at least a few on the club, namely rookie Marc Krauss, who drove in five of his team’s six runs on Friday night, including a two-run homer in the second inning.

The homer to Krauss was the 18th Dickey has given up at home this season — more than any other pitcher in the majors.

Despite the hitter-friendly confines of the Rogers Centre — where more homers have been hit than at any other ballpark this year — Dickey said he’s got to figure out a way to be successful at home because he’s got “a bunch more starts here” over the next few years.

“Whether that’s changing speeds or trying to throw more knuckleballs that have downward tilt, rather than the high one that I’ve been able to throw the last few years. Whatever it is, I will not stop turning over stones to try to make it work,” he said. “We’ve got a good team here and I believe in our ability to win a championship and I want to be a part of that. Right now at home, I feel like I’m costing us. And it hurts, because I want to be a guy that my guys look to to stop the bleeding. I have not been a gauze pad, let’s put it that way.”

Before the seventh-inning smash fest, Jose Reyes and Brett Lawrie slammed their own solo bombs, marking the third time this year the Jays have gone deep five times.

No doubt, these Jays are built on the long ball — their 128 jacks rank second in the majors behind Baltimore — and while their offence has been criticized at times this year for being too one-dimensional, on Friday it helped to save them some embarrassment, as Dickey stumbled against the free-swinging Astros.

Winners of two straight against the Astros, the Jays are on a streak for the first time since they won those 11 games in June, which now seems a distant memory.

Colby Rasmus didn’t homer on Friday — coming just a few feet short of making it back-to-back-to-back jacks after driving one off the wall in right field after Lind’s seventh-inning dinger — but he did notch four hits on the night, including a pair of squarely struck doubles.

Rasmus has been among the Jays’ hottest hitters of late, hitting .387 this month.

“He’s more confident,” Gibbons said of Rasmus before Friday’s game. “I think he’s starting to settle in to who he is. Got more years under his belt.”

Reyes, meanwhile, was just a triple short of hitting for the cycle, going 3-for-3 with a pair of walks. The Jays’ leadoff hitter is hitting .318 since coming off the disabled list on June 26 and has multiple hits in seven of his last 11 games.

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